Beyond Time - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

this results in varying temporal interpretations such as those noted above. Interpretation,
within context, of the relevance presupposition determines the location of the state picked
out by -ite within the situation’s event structure. In the associative domain, perspective time
is located within the -ite-derived state (unmarked or marked with -li-). In the dissociative
prehodiernal domain (with the prehodiernal imperfective ka- prefix), -ite invokes a secondary
perspective time, located within the -ite-derived state in the dissociative domain. I have not
found future uses with -ite. Throughout this chapter, when -ite is used in the associative
domain, perspective time may be understood to correlate with utterance time. When -ite
is used with prehodiernal imperfective ka-, -ka- focuses a frame within which a secondary
perspective time may be introduced.
Analysis of -ite as a stativizer with a relevance proposition is confirmed by narrative uses
of the -ite marker, discussed in 6.6. In narratives, the -ite suffix appears in a few common
collocations used in shifting the story’s action from one location to another. It also often
appears in orientation sections, describing a character’s state (e.g. married or suffering) that
sets up the ensuing conflict and action. Both of these functions, as well as other appearances
of -ite in narratives, are predicted under an analysis of -ite as a stativizer with a relevance
presupposition.
The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. In section 6.2, I give basic morphosyntactic
information about -ite in Zambian and Namibian varieties, both of which are
used as data sources in this chapter, because they both use the suffix frequently and with
similar effects, and are are valuable for comparison. In 6.3, I argue that -ite’s primary semantic
role is as a stativizer: it creates a state attributed to the verb’s subject. Section
6.4 argues that -ite also carries a relevance presupposition. 6.5 brings together these two
components of -ite, showing how they account for -ite’s temporal interpretations. These
components are also used in narrative structuring, which I discuss in 6.6. This analysis
may have implications for the historical study of -ite and similar suffixes, which are often
reconstructed as anterior markers (e.g. Nurse (2008); cf. Schadeberg (2003), who reconstructs
PB *-ide as a perfective marker). The chapter therefore closes in section 6.7 with a
historical and comparative view of -ite, arguing against previous proposals of its origins as
an anterior or perfective marker. The possible history and development of -ite in Totela and
within Bantu more broadly are discussed in 6.7.2. Section 6.7.3 discusses -ite-like suffixes in
languages closely related to Totela, showing that their temporal semantics are also far from
straightforward.
6.2 Morphosyntax
In the general case, -ite’s form is -ite or -ete, with the first vowel harmonizing for (mid)
height (VHH) with the verbal root vowel (-ite after i, u, and a; -ete after mid vowels e and
o). Other forms are the result of imbrication (a process in which the suffix “moves inside” the
root, causing vowel coalescence and consonant loss; see e.g. Bastin 1983; Botne & Kershner
2000:168), consonant mutation (CM), and consonant harmony. Passive -w- occurs before the
final vowel of -ite, suggesting (though by no means demanding) a bimorphemic analysis, i.e.
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